Adapting to anomalous floods in Kaziranga National Park: ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction linking climate change to conservation strategies

Abstract

Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in Assam, is a UNESCO world heritage site, which primarily affected by recurrent devastating floods over the last few decades. KNP is home to two-thirds of the world’s great one-horned rhinoceroses (Rhinoceros unicornis) population that is under high anthropogenic pressures and abiotic stresses. KNP falls within the Asian monsoon zone, and receiving a large amount of rainfall during premonsoon to postmonsoon periods leads to frequent flooding in the region that impacts human life, wildlife habitat, and overall ecosystem health. The present chapter attempted to discuss the precipitation and surface runoff anomaly in the Brahmaputra basin to deduce its possible relation with the recurrent floods in the region. The temporal Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite images were used to infer the nature and coverage of inundation in KNP during 2015-19. The study suggested the increased frequency of floods due to anomalous rainfall in the region as well as in its upper catchment attributed to rising temperatures in major parts of India as an impact of changing climatic conditions. Effective ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (EbDRR) strategies are required to reduce the increasing impacts of the devastating floods in KNP based on unique local traditional and ecological knowledge to cope with their own agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions. Therefore, various methods of EbDRR including the development of suitable habitats in the southern highlands, its linkages with KNP using a few overhead passages, extended buffer area in the vicinity of KNP to refrain from anthropogenic influences, and afforestation primarily in the northern and northeastern parts of KNP, are required to mitigate the flood hazard in KNP to secure the wildlife habitat in this world heritage site. © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.